Ship Design and Manufacturing Professional Development Program: Teaching Experience and Judgment

摘要

The increasing strategic value of the Navy to the country and shipbuilding plans to fundamentally increase the size and composition of the Fleet are frequently in the news in terms of international security issues. Yet, a series of news reports of continuing serious technical problems with ships in the Fleet or ships being delivered to the Fleet put these plans in significant risk. Some naval analysts believe that due to ship acquisition failures, the U.S. Navy has squandered the past few decades building the wrong ships. Axe (2021) states:"The U.S. Navy spent a decade in the early 2000s building warships that either don't work, cost too much to build in large numbers or whose designs are fundamentally flawed on a conceptual level. Or all three... Historians might spend decades debating exactly what drove Navy leaders to pour billions of dollars into these ships for precious little return on their investment...While the U.S. Navy treaded water on its fleet design and force structure, the Russian and Chinese navies designed sound, affordable ships—and began building them in large numbers. The Americans' lost decade allowed the Russians and Chinese to catch up to U.S. sea power"